Nellie Farren

right|frame|Nellie Farren Ellen "Nellie" Farren (16 April 1848 – 28 April 1904 ) was an English actress and singer known for her roles as the "principal boy" in musical burlesques at the Gaiety Theatre in London. For a quarter of a century there, she was "the best-known star of London burlesque". Her mother was Ellen nee Smithson. Farren married actor and stage manager Robert Soutar in 1867, and the couple had two sons, Henry Robert Soutar (1868–1928), an actor who ended his days as a general labourer, and the actor Joseph Farren Soutar (1870–1962).

Her first role was as the young Duke of York in Richard III in 1853 at the Theatre Royal, Exeter. As a child, she sometimes modelled for Dante Gabriel Rossetti. In 1862, she played the Fairy Star in The Rose of Blarney at Sadler's Wells Theatre, receiving good notices, followed by a series of other parts at the Victoria Theatre.

Later in 1864, Farren moved to the Olympic Theatre, where she stayed for several years, playing in a number of pieces, including The Hidden Hand by Tom Taylor; My Wife's Bonnet by John Maddison Morton; the burlesques Prince Camaralzaman, or, the Fairies' Revenge and Faust and Marguerite; and Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, as the Clown. During this time, she also played roles in other theatres, such as Pert in London Assurance in 1866. Her husband, Robert Soutar, joined the theatre at the same time and served as an actor, stage manager and writer there. Farren next played the title role in Alfred Thompson's Columbus!, or the Original Pitch in a Merry Key (1869).

Farren continued at the Gaiety for the next 25 years, playing in comedies of all kinds and in Shakespearean dramas, first under Hollingshead and then under George Edwardes, performing the lead in dozens of shows, many also starring Edward Terry, Kate Vaughan, Fred Leslie and E. W. Royce. She was most acclaimed in the "principal boy" roles. According to Hollingshead, Farren developed a "spinal complaint, which troubled her in her early Gaiety career [and] developed into locomotor ataxy" later.

Some of her best known roles in the 1870s included Tilly Slowboy in Dot (Dion Boucicault's version of The Cricket on the Hearth); Miss Prue in Love for Love; Princess of Trebizonde (1870), based on the Jacques Offenbach operetta; Sam Weller in Bardell v. Pickwick; Mercury in Gilbert and Sullivan's first operatic collaboration, Thespis, or, the Gods Grown Old (1871); Ali Baba; Polly Neefit in Shilly-Shally (1872), by Anthony Trollope and Charles Reade; Leporello in Robert Reece's Don Giovanni; Antony and Cleopatra (1873); Clemency Newcome in The Battle of Life, (based on Charles Dickens's Christmas story of that title); the title role in Henry James Byron's Little Don Caesar de Bazan (1876, a send-up of Boucicault's play); Thaddeus in Byron's The Bohemian G-yurl and the Unapproachable Pole (1877); and title roles in Byron's farce Little Doctor Faust (1878) and Robbing Roy (1879). Blue Beard (1882); Camaralzaman and Mazeppa (1884); perhaps her most famous role as Little Jack Sheppard (1885); Monte Cristo Jr., as Edmond Dantes (1886); Dr. Frankenstein in Frankenstein, or The Vampire's Victim (1887); Miss Esmeralda, or The Maid and the Monkey (1887); Fra Diavolo, Gulliver, Rip Van Winkle, Sonnambula; the title role in Cinder Ellen up too Late (1891); and dozens of others. Perhaps the most successful of her later roles was the title role in Ruy Blas and the Blasé Roué (1889, by Fred Leslie and H. F. Clarke, a take-off of Victor Hugo's play Ruy Blas),

In addition to these burlesques, Farren also appeared in other comedies such as The Man of Quality (an adaptation of Vanbrugh's The Relapse), as Miss Hoyden (1870); William Congreve's Love for Love, as Miss Prue (1871); Bickerstaff's The Hypocrite, as Charlotte (1873); The Rivals (1874) as Lillian Languish (1874) and as Lucy (1877); The Critic, as Tilburina (1874); Ursula in Much Ado About Nothing (1874); Maria in Twelfth Night (1876); The Grasshopper (1877, an adaptation of Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy's La Cigale); and a number of farces. Another success was her Smike in Nicholas Nickleby (1886). The same year, Farren helped George Edwards obtain the lease to the Gaiety and became co-producer of the Gaiety company's shows. In 1895, Farren had a partial recovery and managed her own company at the Opera Comique but had little success. One piece by this company that was well reviewed was A Model Trilby; or, A Day or Two After Du Maurier, by Charles H. E. Brookfield and William Yardley, with music by Meyer Lutz. The piece was a burlesque of the Haymarket Theatre's hit Trilby, an adaptation of the 1894 George du Maurier novel of the same name. However, Farren lost her savings on the venture. It included a performance of Trial by Jury with W. S. Gilbert as the Associate and Effie Bancroft as the "Associate's Wife"; the barristers were all playwrights, the jury included many well-known comic actors, the bridesmaids included leading ladies of the day mixed with chorus girls from the Gaiety, and a huge "crowd in court" was made up of D'Oyly Carte Opera Company principals and other actors. Principals included Barrington, Pounds, Lewis, Passmore, Lytton and Perry. Also given was the premiere of a J. M. Barrie playlet, "A Platonic Friendship". Kate Vaughan returned, after a 12 year absence, to dance. Henry Irving recited The Dream of Eugene Aram, Ellen Terry played Ophelia, Albert Chevalier sang Mrs. Hawkins, Dan Leno gave Hamlet, Marie Tempest sang "The Jewel of Asia", and Hayden Coffin sang "Tommy Atkins." Marie Lloyd and several music hall stars danced, Coffin appeared again, and Farren appeared on stage with Charles Wyndham. Lydia Thompson, Kate Santley, Herbert Beerbohm Tree, John Hare, Clara Butt, and many other famous actors performed, as did the choruses of The Geisha, The Circus Girl and other popular shows. Barely able to walk with the aid of crutches though only aged 49, Farren said a few words and made a joke. The benefit raised an estimated £7,000 for her retirement. In 1908 a racehorse was named after her.

Her son Joseph Farren Soutar was buried alongside her when he died in 1962.